Obesity in America: Photos From the Early Days of a National Health Crisis

4 minute read

“The most serious health problem in the U.S. today is obesity.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In fact, that very assertion is now so commonplace that one might be forgiven for assuming it’s the most recent pronouncement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the American Medical Association, or the Academy of Pediatrics or, perhaps, from Maria Kang. What’s more, the declaration is unquestionably true, as the dire medical, financial and societal ramifications of America’s obesity epidemic grow ever clearer — and more frightening.

But that pronouncement about obesity’s primacy in the hierarchy of national health problems is not new. In fact, it’s the opening line to a remarkable article published 60 years ago in LIFE magazine. Here, as the national dialog around the obesity crisis in the United States grows more urgent, LIFE.com presents pictures — many of which never ran in the magazine — made by photographer Martha Holmes to illustrate a March 1954 article titled (perhaps offensively to the modern ear), “The Plague of Overweight.”

“Some five million Americans,” LIFE wrote, “medically considered ‘obese,’ weigh at least 20% more than normal and, as a result, have a mortality rate one-and-a-half times higher than their neighbors. . . . Another 20 million Americans are classed by doctors and insurance men as overweight (10% above normal) and are drastically prone to diabetes, gallstones, hernia, kidney and bladder impairments and complications during surgery and pregnancy.”

[MORE: See all of TIME.com’s coverage of obesity.]

The numbers cited by LIFE — numbers, it’s worth noting, that were the result of research significantly different than that cited in reports and peer-reviewed papers today — have ballooned to even more appalling proportions: according to a 2013 CDC report, “more than a third of U.S. adults (35.7%) and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2 – 19 years are obese.”

But perhaps the most astonishing and troubling statistic about obesity in the U.S. relates to the speed with which this affliction has taken hold: for example, in 2010 (again according to the CDC), “there were 12 states with an obesity prevalence of 30%. In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence of 30% or more.”

(There have been some glimmers of hope in this bleak litany. For example, a February 2014 report by the CDC found that the obesity rate in children 2 to 5 dropped 40 percent over an eight-year period, from close to 14 percent in 2004 to just over 8 percent in 2012.)

Try to imagine the toll that obesity will have on the health of those men, women and children, and on the nation’s economy as a whole. How much more will all of us pay for insurance every year because of this epidemic? How much economic productivity will be lost due to illness, injuries, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and other collateral damage from the immediate and long-term ravages of obesity?

The LIFE article, meanwhile, focused at least in part on one woman, Dorothy Bradley, whose struggles with overeating and body-image issues were familiar, and remain familiar, to countless American men and women.

“When she finished high school in Tyner, Tenn., in 1940,” LIFE told its readers, “5-foot 5-inch Dorothy Bradley weighed 205 pounds and fit snugly into a matronly size 44 graduation dress. She had overeaten from the time she began to mature, possibly because of unconscious emotional turmoil.”

The article chronicled Dorothy’s efforts to lose weight; her desire to work in medicine; her successes (losing 60 pounds) and her backsliding (gaining it all back, and then some); and ultimately, something of a happy ending, as she lost and, as of the article’s publication, had kept off close to 70 pounds and earned a job as head nurse at a hospital in Kentucky.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Bulging at beach in 1949, 197-pound Dorothy [Bradley] self-consciously leaves locker room for swim. She covered up embarrassment by being jolly and gregarious
Caption from LIFE. Bulging at beach in 1949, 197-pound Dorothy [Bradley] self-consciously leaves locker room for swim. She covered up embarrassment by being jolly and gregarious.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Hungry at drugstore after a day's work earning money for nursing school, Dorothy envies slim girl's milkshake, orders lemonade without sugar for herself.
Caption from LIFE. Hungry at drugstore after a day's work earning money for nursing school, Dorothy envies slim girl's milkshake, orders lemonade without sugar for herself.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, squeezes through turnstile, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, squeezes through turnstile, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley (right), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley (right), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, eyes dress in a store window, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, eyes dress in a store window, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Embarrassed at shop because she wears a size 40, Dorothy tries on new dress. A friend encouragingly points out that dieting has reduced waistline by two sizes
Caption from LIFE. Embarrassed at shop because she wears a size 40, Dorothy tries on new dress. A friend encouragingly points out that dieting has reduced waistline by two sizesMartha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In gym in New York sweat-suited Dorothy finds workout did not by itself remove pounds but did help avoid flabbiness as she lost weight dieting.
Caption from LIFE. In gym in New York sweat-suited Dorothy finds workout did not by itself remove pounds but did help avoid flabbiness as she lost weight dieting.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, measures her waist, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, measures her waist, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, meets with a nutritionist, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, meets with a nutritionist, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, tries on a dress, 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, tries on a dress, 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.
Dorothy Bradley, photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, works out in 1949.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Now down to 155 pounds, an attractive Dorothy dances at Navy Ball
Caption from LIFE.Now down to 155 pounds, an attractive Dorothy dances at Navy Ball.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE Magazine, March 8, 1954
LIFE magazine, March 8, 1954, "The Plague of Overweight."LIFE Magazine
LIFE Magazine, March 8, 1954
LIFE magazine, March 8, 1954, "The Plague of Overweight."LIFE Magazine

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